False Prophecies

The Nature of Prophecies

Biblical prophecies were usually told through dreams God sent to prophets and gave them the power to interpret.

In other cases, they were the direct words from God that something was about to take place.

There is much metaphor found in Biblical prophecies, making them very open to interpretation, one of the reasons they have been a mainstay within western religion and culture.

Biblical prophecy is a vastly complex subject that scholars have given much attention throughout time. When discussion Biblical prophecies they are typically divided into the following types:

• General — Bible Prophecies that deal with various places and people.
• Eschatology — The prophecies concerning the last things.
• Christian eschatology — Christian viewpoint of final events.
• Millennialism — Belief in a thousand year reign of Christ on earth
• Israelology — Prophecies concerning Israel, the nation, the people, and the man.
• Messianic — The prophecies concerning the Messiah.

Early Prophets	Twelve Minor Prophets	Major Prophets
Enoch Noah Jacob Moses Deborah David Nathaniel Elijah Elisha	Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi	Samuel Daniel Ezekiel Isaiah Jeremiah Zechariah Jesus John (Apostle) Paul John the Baptist Agabus Anna

Obviously, there are a vast number of sources to draw from, and with this many ancient prophecies floating around, there is enough fuel for false prophets to last for centuries, and thus far it has.

A History of Failed Prophecies and Doomsdays

650 BCE: Ezekiel prophesied the conquest of Egypt, the scattering of its entire population (it was to be uninhabited for 40 years), and Nebuchadnezzar plundering Egypt in Ezekiel 29:3-30:26. This included the claim that God will make Egypt so weak that it will never again rule over other nations. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt in 568 BCE, but the armies of Pharaoh Amasis II defeated the Babylonians Amasis II had a long and prosperous reign. The Egyptians were conquered by the Persians in 525 BCE, and has since been ruled by the Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantine Empire, Ottomans, British and the French, and has enjoyed periods of independence. 

30 CE: Jesus is recorded as saying in Matthew 16:28: “…there shall be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” In Matthew 24:34, Jesus said: “…This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Since the life expectancy in those days was little over 30 years, Jesus appears to have predicted the Second Coming sometime during the 1st century CE. It didn’t happen.

60 CE: Interpreting the Epistles of Paul literally, his writings imply that Jesus would return during the lifetime of those living in the middle of the 1st century.

90 CE: Saint Clement I predicted the world would end at “any moment.”

2nd Century CE: Prophets of the Montanist movement predicted Jesus would return sometime during their lifetime and establish the New Jerusalem in the city of Pepuza.

365 CE: Hilary of Poitiers announced the Apocalypse would begin that year.

375 to 400 CE: Saint Martin of Tours, one of Hilary of Poiters’ students, predicted that the world would end before 400 CE.

500 CE: Pope Hippolytus and Christian academic Sextus Julius Africanus had predicted Apocalypse for this year.

968 CE: German Emperor Otto III interpreted an eclipse as a sign of the impending end of the world.

992 CE: The Catholic observances Good Friday and the Feast of the Annunciation coincided this year, a supposed harbinger of the Antichrist.

1.1.1000 CE: European Christians had predicted the end of the world on this date. As it neared, Christian armies waged war against Pagan countries in Northern Europe in order to convert them by force. Many Christians had given away many of their possessions to the Church. When Jesus did not appear, the Church did not return and of the gifts, and they instead slaughtered countless critics, killing off the post-Apocalypse agitation pretty quickly.

5.1000 CE: The body of Charlemagne was dug-up on Pentecost, since a legend had started that an emperor would rise from his sleep to battle the Antichrist.

1005-1006 CE: A terrible famine throughout Europe was seen as a sign of the end times.

1033 CE: This was the supposed 1000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and therefore the date of his return according to some Church clerics at the time.

1147 CE: Gerard of Poehlde said the millennium had actually started in 306 CE during Constantine’s reign. Therefre, the world’s end was expected to be in 1306 CE.

1179 CE: John of Toledo predicted the end of the world during 1186, due to a planetary alignment.

1205 CE: Joachim of Fiore predicted that the Antichrist was already born, and that King Richard the Lionheart would defeat him. The Millennium would begin sometime before 1205 CE.

1284 CE: Pope Innocent III added 666 years onto the date the Islam was founded and came up with this date for the Apocalypse.

1346 CE: The black plague spread across Europe and was seen as the prelude to the end of the world.

1496 CE: 15th century mystics predicted that the Millennium would begin during this year.

1524 CE: Astrologers predicted the imminent end of the world due to a massive flood.

1533 CE: Melchior Hoffman predicted that Jesu would return a millennium after the date of his execution in 1533 CE and establish the New Jerusalem in Strasbourg, Germany. Hoffman was arrested and died in jail.

1669 CE: Twenty thousand Russias burned themselves to death between 1669 CE and 1690 CE to protect themselves from the Antichrist.

1689 CE: Seventeenth century Baptist Benjamin Keach predicted the end of the world for this year.

10.13.1736 CE: British theologian William Whitson predicted another great flood for this date.

6.8.1783 CE: A volcano erupted in Iceland, pumping apocalyptic amounts of debris into the sky, killing cattle, crops, and 1/3rd of the surrounding inhabitants. The poison clouds eventually reached England and Western Europe, resulting in a massive loss of life. Clerics declared this the end of the world.

1792 CE: The American Shaker movement declared this year to be the date of Christ’s return.

1794 CE: Methodist minister Charles Wesley predicted this year for doomsday.

1830 CE: Christian prophetess Margaret McDonald predicted that Robert Owen, the founder of New Harmony, Indiana, would be the Antichrist.

1832 CE: Morman founder Joseph Smith said “I prophesy in the name of the Lord God, and let it be written–the Son of Man will not come in the clouds of heaven till I am eighty-five years old.” Smith was assassinated by a mob in 1844 CE at age 38.

3.21.1843 CE: William Miller predicted that Jesus would come on this date. It did not happen. Miller was the founder of the Millerite Movement, which spawned the Seventh Day Adventist Movement, which in turn spawned Armstrongism.

10.22.1844 CE: Miller’s second date for Christ’s return, resulting in the Great Disappointment and many suicides.

1850 CE: Seventh Day Adventists founder Ellen G. White made many apocalyptic predictions, which all failed. She wrote in 1850 CE: “My accompanying angel said, ‘Time is almost finished. Get ready, get ready, get ready.’ …now time is almost finished…and what we have been years learning, they will have to learn in a few months.”

1856 CE: Ellen G. White’s last prediction: “I was shown the company present at the Conference. Said the angel: ‘Some food for worms, some subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus.”

1881 CE: Sixteenth century mystic Mother Shipton predicted the end of the world for this year: “…The world to an end shall come; in eighteen hundred and eighty-one.”

1891 CE: In 1835, Joseph Smith announced that Jesus would return within 56 years of that date.

12.17.1919 CE: Meteorologist Albert Porta predicted an alignment of the planets would generate a magnetic current that would cause the Sun to explode and destroy the Earth.

1914 CE: The Watchtower Society based based this date on a prophecy in Daniel 4. The Jehovah’s Witnesses interpreted each “time” mentioned in Daniel as equal to 360 days, totalling 2520 days, which they interpreted to mean 2520 years from 607 BCE, resulting in 1914 as the apocalyptic year.

1915 CE: The Watchtower Society’s next date.

1918 CE: The Watchtower Society’s next date.

1920 CE: The Watchtower Society’s next date.

1925 CE: The Watchtower Society’s next date.

1935 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that Mussolini would rule the world.

1936 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted Christ would return this year. This was his first attempt.

1939 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted Hitler and Franco would give their power to Mussolini. They didn’t. He also predicted that Ethiopia and Libya would join the USSR. They didn’t.

1940 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that the Third Reich would defeat Great Britain in the war, that Turkey would join the Axis Powers, Mussolini would conquer Egypt and Palestine, and Winston Churchill would rise as a dictator similar to Hitler. None of these things happened.

1941 CE: The Watchtower Society’s next date.

1942 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted the German General Rommel would conquer Jerusalem and Egypt. Rommel’s army was destroyed the next year.

1943 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted Christ would return this year. This was his second attempt.

1944 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that it would take 20 additional years to defeat the Japanese, and that the invasion of Normandy would fail.

1945 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that the Japanese would drop a nuclear bomb on the United States.

1946 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted the Jews would never occupy Palestine. They did.

1965 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that Germany would rebound and destroy the United States.

1948 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that Germany would become a nuclear power “within 3 years.” They didn’t.

1950 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted the United States would never win another war, and that no man would ever go to outer space.

1953 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted 20 more years to the Korean War. Eisenhower ended it a month later.

1955 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted the United States would experience the worst drought in its history. It didn’t.

1956 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that Britain would crumble under famine conditions, and that the USSR would outlive the United States.

1957 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted Christ would return this year. This was his third attempt.

1958 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted a disease epidemic would sweep over the United States.

1959 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted the United States would shortly come to an end, and that China would invade India.

1960 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted Prince Charles would become the King of England. He’s still waiting.

1965 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that man would never walk on the moon.

1962 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted the rise of a Nazi dictatorship in the Vatican.

1965 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted the Pope would “falsely resurrect Hitler.” One of Armstrong’s pastors, Roderick Meredith, claimed that Hitler was still alive. Armstrong also predicted the European trade embargo would ruin the United States, and that the Jews would not conquer Jerusalem.

1967 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted the Jews would demolish the Dome of the Rock, triggering the end times, and that Jordan would conquer West Jerusalem (the opposite occurred).

1969 CE: COG Evangelist Roderick Meredith predicted the end of the United States by this date.

1970 CE: COG Evangelist Gerald Waterhouse predicted that if Herbert W. Armstrong ever died, God would destroy the world. Armstrong died in 1986 CE. Armstrong himself also predicted that Germany would take over Easter Europe.

1971 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted nuclear war and the persecution of the Worldwide Church of God for this date.

1972 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted Christ would return this year. This was his fourth attempt.

1975 CE: The Watchtower Society’s next date. Herbert W. Armstrong also predicted Christ would return this year. This fifth and final attempt was infamously recorded in his booklet 1975 in Prophecy! His followers buckled-down and prepared for an impending Apocalypse. The following fallout bled members from the Worldwide Church of God.

1977 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted that by this date, there would be world peace. There wasn’t.

1978 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted he would become one of the Two Witnesses, along with his son, Garner Ted Armstrong. He also predicted John Paul II would unite Europe. He didn’t.

1982 CE: Herbert W. Armstrong predicted Britain would lose the Falklands War.

3.21.1988 CE: Harold Camping‘s first predicted date for the rapture.

1994 CE: The Watchtower Society’s next date. They have changed their prediction to take place “6000 years after the creation of Eve.” Nobody knows when this is.

9.7.1994 CE: Harold Camping’s second predicted date for the rapture.

3.19.1997: The Heaven’s Gate cult committed mass suicide after their leader Marshall Applewhite predicted the coming Hale–Bopp Comet was actually a UFO and harbinger of the world’s end.

2000 CE: The Y2K scare, along with multiple doomsday predictions due to the “big round number” phenomenon.

2001 CE: The Lord’s Witness and True Bible Code predicted that the United Nations would take over the world and there would be a worldwide famine.

2006 CE: Michael Drosnin predicted in his book “The Bible Code II”: “… the Bible code clearly states the danger in modern terms- ‘atomic holocaust’ and ‘World War’ are both encoded in the Bible. And both are encoded with the same year, 2006.” Annie Stanton predicted that a 14.4 mile long asteroid would collide with the earth, bring Jesus with it, and start a 1000 year period of peace. James Kingsley predicted: “‘End of Days’ Atomic Air Strike in 2006. Two or three MiG fighters will drop bombs on nuclear facilities in Washington State, Oregon and San Francisco. This will be done by a secret alliance of China, Iran, Syria. Somehow France is involved. The attack will begin at 9 AM Pacific Time and cause massive damage that will effect the whole planet.” A cult called “The Family” anticipated the end of the world and stockpiled food in caves in India.

1.25.2006 CE: James Kingsley predicted a major “Earthquake Storm” near Los Angeles, California, shortly before midnight on this date in Redondo Beach.

5.25.2006 CE: Eric Julien of the Exopolitics Institute predicted, based on visions, a remnant from a comet would hit the Atlantic ocean and generate massive tsunami resulting in tens of millions of deaths. Dozens of underwater volcanoes were supposed to erupt and boil away the oceans.

6.6.2006 CE: For obvious reasons, 06.06.06 was seen as a good date to end the world.

8.22.2006 CE: Glenn Beck predicted this date to be “the day that Israel might be wiped off the map, leading to all-out Armageddon…the day that Agnostics get down on one knee and start to pray, ‘Sweet Jesus, are you coming today’?”

9.8.2006 CE: The Lord’s Witness and the True Bible Code predicted that a nuclear bomb would hit the United Nations between sundown and sunrise on the Sabbath.

9.12.2006 CE: Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins of The House of Yahweh, an Armstrongite, predicted nuclear war for this date, starting near the Euphrates River.

10.9.2006 CE: Kenyan elder Eliezer Kamotho for The House of Yahweh, an Armstrongite, said that North Korea’s nuclear bomb test proved that a nuclear war had already begun.

12.17.2006 CE: Dr. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda predicted the Second Coming would start in Puerto Rico: “This December 17th the world will be a witness of the second coming of Christ. The king of kings will touch upon the boricuan [Hispanic] land. Puerto Rico will be the stage where hundreds of people will witness ‘live’ while millions will watch through satellite TV the event that will put a mark upon history.”

6.12.2007 CE: Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins of The House of Yahweh changes his prediction to this date, citing that his original prediction would follow a woman’s natural birth cycle, and therefore take place 9 months later.

6.8.2008 CE: Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins of The House of Yahweh made his third nuclear war prediction for this date.

2008 CE: COG “prophet” Ron Weinland first set the beginning of the 3.5 year “Great Tribulation” as April 17, 2008, but later reset it to begin on December 14, 2008. Weinland has ordained himself and his wife “The Two Witnesses.”

2009 CE: COG “prophet” Ron Weinland has modified his prediction to allow for 980 days of Great Tribulation beginning on September 20, 2009. It never happened.

5.21.2011 CE: Evangelist Harold Camping predicted to his followers that this date would bring the rapture, which would be heralded by earthquakes all the across world, followed by the disappearance of the faithful. It did not happen. Camping went into hiding, after taking in over $40 million in donations from delusion people attempting to “preach the gospel.” This was his third predicted date for the rapture.

10.21.2011 CE: After Harold Camping finally faced the press, he rescheduled his rapture and the apocalypse for for October 21. This is his fourth attempt.

11.11.11 CE: Crackpots in India and elsewhere think that palindromes are apocalyptic.

2012 CE: Multiple COG conspiracy theorists and other doomsayers have chosen 2012 for the end of the world, based on galactic alignments, Mayan prophecies, and “Biblical time cycles.”

5.27.2012: COG “prophet” Ron Weinland has reset his Apocalypse date for this time.

2015 CE: This is the date that many COG sects and false prophets have chosen for the return of Christ, assuming a three-year “Great Tribulation” starting in 2012. UCG and other cults have given us “three years” from today for the Second Coming.